to his dinner, where company awaited him, and said to his wife, "My child! they have shot at me, but there is no harm done!" The surgeon, when desired to account for his preservation, said, "there is but one explanation; God's hand was between them." Half an hour afterwards the king arrived to inquire after him; then came the prince royal, who sat at his table and drank to his safety; and as the crime became known, all the foreign ambassadors, generals, ministers, and officials crowded to see and hear the truth, and to express their sympathy; conservative clubs serenaded him, and for the first time in his life be addressed the people from his window. The would-be assassin, a political enthusiast named Blind, committed suicide before any examination was made. He was considered to be the tool of a conspiracy amongst the South German or Vienna party. It was said in Vienna that Bismarck owed his life to a shirt of mail, and a witty statesman remarked that he bought his linen from the ironmonger! This sad occurrence was not exactly calculated to produce a soothing effect upon the public mind in Berlin; men grew more and more serious, and on the 15th June the telegraphs began to work, and the Prussian columns were set in motion.
The crisis Bismarck had spoken of seven years before had arrived. The question, "should Prussia be treated, even in Germany itself, as a second-rate power?" must be decided. He would have had it concluded on friendly terms long ago, as even his enemies could not deny. Now it must be settled, as he had predicted, ferro et igni. The Austrian-Prussian war became a fact.
There was great rejoicing in Berlin on the 29th June, when the news of the first victory arrived; and when on that day Bismarck left the royal palace every one wanted to shake hands with him. On the 30th he left Berlin with Generals von Roon and Von Moltke in the suite of the king for the seat of war; on the 1st July they were at Sichrow, whence he writes, saying, "Gitschin was taken by us yesterday at the point of the bayonet by the Frankfort division; there are not many traces of war except the down-trodden cornfields;" and from Gitschin he says, "the battle-field is full of corpses, arms, and horses; send me cigars by the courier every time, a thousand at a time, price twenty dollars, for the hospitals—all the wounded beg them of me." Here they met Prince Frederick Charles, and the final arrangements were made for the battle of next day, the terrible battle of Sadowa, which commenced next morning at 8 o'clock. Bismarck, on his tall roan mare Veranda (since called Sadowa), rode by the king throughout the day. His warlike majesty rode into the thick of the firing, when Bismarck said to him, "As a major I have no right to counsel your majesty on the field of battle, but it is my duty as minister-president to beg your majesty not to seek evident danger;" to which his majesty retorted, "How can I ride off when my army is under fire?" During the week the minister writes to his wife, "Confidence is general. Our people are worthy to be kissed; every man is brave to the death; quiet, obedient, moralized, with empty stomach, wet clothes, little sleep, boot soles falling off. friendly towards every one, no plundering and burning, paying what they are able, and eating mouldy bread; there must exist a depth of piety in our common soldier, or all this could not be." "At Königgrätz I rode the tall roan, was thirteen hours in the saddle without fodder. He behaved very well, was frightened neither at the firing nor the corpses, ate corn tops and plum leaves with satisfaction at the most difficult moments, and went thoroughly well to the end, when I seemed more tired than the horse." On September 20, 1866, Bismarck took the place of honour in the memorable triumphant entry of the troops into Berlin, as the major-general and chief of the seventh regiment of heavy landwehr horse. Immediately before the king rode Bismarck, Von Roon, and Von Moltke, then came the staff, then came the king followed by the royal princes and generals. In the midst of this magnificent cavalcade shone the tall and commanding figure of the premier in his white uniform with yellow collar and accoutrements, wearing on his broad chest the orange sash of the Order of the Black Eagle as he sat stately on his tall roan horse, though at this same time he was suffering so much pain as with difficulty to keep his seat. After this his strength failed him; he went into the country and did not return to Berlin until December.
He might well strive long to prevent the war that ended in this victory, for he had known too well that such a victory must be followed by a war with France. It was threatened almost sooner than even he expected. France could never forgive the Prussian success at Königgrätz. At least, some heavy fine must immediately be extorted to atone for it. France had hardly anticipated that Prussia would be victorious if left alone in such a warfare, and on certain terms, ruinous to German independence, had offered assistance to Prussia. The whole German territory between the Rhine and the Moselle must be the tribute paid for the loan of 300,000 soldiers against Austria.
When the war was over, France might have found in the treaty of peace another opportunity of pressing her demands; but as the whole strife had been regarded by Prussia as an internal German contest, peace was concluded with Austria while the French ambassador was ignorant of the terms agreed upon. He again insisted on the propriety of making some "compensation" for the loss to France of an advantage she might have gained by taking a part in the war, or in the treaty of peace. It was now gravely proposed that, under the penalty of a declaration of war, Mayence must be ceded to France. Of course this was refused. Napoleon III. professed to regard the demand as a "fiasco," and disavowed the policy of his foreign minister, who was, hereupon, dismissed from office; but Count Benedetti still remained at his post as French ambassador at Berlin, and soon renewed his demands for compensation. While proposing to Prussia an alliance with France for their common aggrandizement, he intrigued with the southern states against Prussia. The chancellor exposed this two-faced policy, and defended Germany by forming an alliance, offensive and defensive, between Prussia and the southern states. Luxemburg was next mentioned as the required compensation; and more, it was proposed that Prussia should assist France in a conquest of Belgium, and that, for her reward, Prussia might dominate, as she pleased, over the southern states. These demands were made shortly before the London conference on the affair of Luxemburg, May 11, 1867. The draft of a treaty to this effect, written by Count Benedetti, was left in the charge of Bismarck, who allowed it to be published, July 24, 1870. The English papers then mostly regarded the treaty as unauthentic. Its proposal, they said, was incredible. Others argued that Bismarck must himself have conspired in the design exposed by his publication of the document. Their reason for refusing to accept as truth the chancellor's own plain declaration was never assigned. They could not have found it in the "Memoirs of Lord Palmerston." He had spoken of such demands as those made by Count Benedetti as more than probable. However, argument may now be laid aside. The truth of Bismarck's plain statements is admitted. When he had rejected these last proposals, the blow long threatened was delivered. The candidature for the Spanish throne was made to serve as a pretext. When this failed through the voluntary withdrawal of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, an extraordinary demand was made—nothing less than that King Wilhelm of Prussia should pledge himself to France, that he would never allow any such candidature to take place again in Germany. Bismarck refused to submit this demand to the king's notice. Count Benedetti undertook the office. The king refused to confer with him, a second time, on such a matter, and the conclusion that had been predetermined arrived. France declared war against Prussia. The challenge was accepted, not by Prussia alone, but by united Germany. Bismarck saw the object of his long labours accomplished; while M. Thiers, with intense mortification, saw his own great project ruined for ever, by a rash attempt to carry it into effect "at the wrong time."
It cannot be said that the French government remained without warning as to the determined attitude the Prussian government was prepared to assume. On the 13th July, after the renunciation of Prince Leopold's candidature to the throne of Spain, the pretended point in dispute, Count von Bismarck told Lord A. Loftus that unless some assurance were given by France in an official form, that the present solution of the Spanish question was a final and satisfactory settlement of the French demands, and that no further claims were to be raised; and if, further, a withdrawal or a satisfactory explanation of the menacing language held by the Duc de Gramont were not made—the Prussian government would be obliged to seek explanations from France. Germany, be added, was prepared for war. On the same 13th July was telegraphed all over Europe
